As promised, here are my presentation slides and extra content from last week’s RIACon conference. I gave three presentations: “Intro to PhoneGap”, “Data Visualization With Web Standards”, and “PhoneGap Native Plugins”. All of the presentations are freely available at: https://github.com/triceam/Presentations.
Intro To PhoneGap
PhoneGap is an application container that allows you to build natively installed mobile applications using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript.
- Build your applications using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript
- Use the PhoneGap API to communicate with the native OS
- PhoneGap packages your app into a distributable binary
For more detail, check out these posts:
PhoneGap related services:
- build.phonegap.com – Cloud-based multi-device compilation
- emulate.phonegap.com – PhoneGap API emulation in the browser
Sample apps with source code:
- Census Browser
- Fresh Food Finder
- Lil Doodle
Data Visualization With Web Standards
Data visualization is the art & science of creating a visual representation of data and information. Really, it can be anything: a bar chart, scatter plot, pie chart, complex flow diagram, 3d model, etc… If your visualization conveys information without having to read a table of data, then it’s doing what it should. Recently, the emergence of HTML5’s dynamic graphics and SVG support have made rich, dynamic, and interactive graphics possible on the web without having to leverage Flash, which was previously the only real option. Be sure to check out this presentation, and read this blog post for more info: Data Visualization With Web Standards
PhoneGap Native Plugins
PhoneGap provides you with the ability to create natively-installed mobile applications using web technologies. As a part of this, PhoneGap provides an API to access native operating system functionality from JavaScript. Luckily for everyone, the JavaScript-to-native bridge is extensible and you can very easily create and expose your own custom native functionality with a JavaScript API. Basically, all PhoneGap native plugins are made up of two parts: a native implementation, and a JavaScript interface. Your PhoneGap application calls the JavaScript interface, which leverages cordovoa.exec to communicate with the native layer. The native layer then performs a native operation and communicates back to the JS layer.
Read more about PhoneGap native plugins from:
- PhoneGap Plugin Development Guide
- Developing a Plugin on Android
- Developing a Plugin on Bada
- Developing a Plugin on BlackBerry
- Developing a Plugin on iOS
- Developing a Plugin on webOS
- Developing a Plugin on Windows Phone
- Adobe ADC: Extending PhoneGap with Native Plugins for Android
- Adobe ADC” Extending PhoneGap with Native Plugins for iOS
- Open source PhoneGap plugins – There are lots of open source native plugins for everything from push notifications, screen captures, barcode scanners, to MapKit or even iCould (among many others).
…and of course, the sample apps:
iOS Multi-Screen
This sample app demonstrates how to create multi-screen experiences using the UIScreen API on iOS. You can use AirPlay mirroring on an AppleTV as a second screen, the content of which is entirely controlled by the JavaScript in the “main” PhoneGap experience on the device. Check out the links and video below to learn more.
LowLatencyAudio
The PhoneGap LowLatencyAudio native plugin for Android and iOS allows you to preload audio, and playback that audio quickly, with a very simple to use API. It overcomes the current limitations of the HTML5 Audio API on many mobile devices. Check out the links and video below to learn more.